First half goals sees Ladies win

Rovers Ladies closed the gap on the teams at the top of the table with a comfortable 3-0 victory away to Nuneaton Town.

All the damage was done in the first half, as strikes from Sophie Jones, Saffron Jordan and Lynda Shepherd secured the points for Gemma Donnelly’s side.

The win moved Rovers to within four points of top spot, with a game in hand.

Rovers started strongly and opened the scoring inside eight minutes courtesy of a cool finish from Jones.

It was 2-0 shortly before the half-hour mark, as Ainsley Strickland saw her header saved and Jordan followed up on the rebound.

As the half drew to a close, Jones came close to grabbing her second, before a Shepherd shot deflected just wide and Strickland missed from close range in the space of a minute.

The third goal eventually arrived on the stroke of half-time when Jones was brought down in the box and Shepherd made no mistake from 12 yards.

Rovers didn’t have it all their own way after the interval, as Nuneaton stepped up their game. However, the visitors absorbed the pressure well and still created chances, with a through ball from Jones to Ali Johnson the best of the openings.

The game ended on a sour note, as substitute Vicky Westerman, who had only been on the pitch for seven minutes, was shown a straight red card on the full-time whistle for a mistimed tackle.

Manager Donnelly said: “We were very dominant and played some neat and tidy football. I was really impressed with our first-half performance in particular and it was great to see Ainsley Strickland and Dan Lea both make their full league debuts.”